RowdyRebel

Critters gotta eat, and it's my job it there. A good truck sure helps...R-model w/20K steer & 46K Mack drives on Camelback, with a steerable & liftable tag axle when needed on the road. Unfortunately, just a power divider...not full lockers. Proper tools are important, too. Only had 6 chains on the truck...chained up all 4 on the front drive & the outside 2 on the rear. 1st attempt was a chain fail...front right inside popped off, slicked up the ice, and the chains on the outsides had nothing to grip...forward momentum stopped & I had to back down for another try...grossing 61,640 on 3 axles (tag raised for grip) in a top-heavy truck...and the front started sliding around. Fun.

2nd attempt was a camera fail...but otherwise successful. Guess I need something better than a pair of gloves wedged between the dash and the phone placed against the windshield. Took a claw hammer up to chip away the slicked up spot, put the chain back on, and hit 'er just a wee bit harder.

Critters was happy...and when I got back to the yard, I grabbed another set of chains. Got 8 on the truck now. Only had 6 so we'd have 6 for each truck...but nobody else cares to have them or use them, so they just sit at the shop. Screw that...tool I have & don't need is better than the tool I need & don't have with me. 8 chains the 1st time wouldn't have required a 2nd try.

I love this kind of work. Physically demanding, wears you out, but fun none the less. I absolutely LOVE a challenge. Any idiot with half a brain can guide a truck down the interstate on a clear, sunny day. I like taking trucks places most won't take their 4x4 pickups.

FINALLY winding down...my 3 brothers have hit the road (with their 10 kids in tow...4, 4, & 2) leaving just my wife, me, & our 2 kiddos at my mom & dad's. Let's just say it was a rowdy. Mom made her caramel pecan rolls, then we loaded up & went Christmas carolling outside grandma's (great grandma to the kids) window at the memory care assisted living place she's at these days. She'll be 99 in February & tested positive for China virus a couple weeks ago...never had any symptoms, though, but my question is...how do you get someone to quarantine in their room if they can't remember they have the virus? Anyway, she was happy to see everyone. Got back to mom & dad's and opened presents...not-so-organized chaos there were 12 kids under the age of 10 excited to be tearing open the huge pile of presents. We gave my boy his big gifts at home before we left with the other grandma (the mother-in-law is still staying with us & stayed home to work & look after the critters)...bicycle and a trampoline...instead of carting them up here. He got lots of monster trucks...one of them remote control, which he loves. Daddy got lots of m&m's and a big cast iron skillet. Momma got a ccw purse and a 1.8L electric water heater for tea & oatmeal and such.

Then we got to go through some more of great grandma & great grandpa's stuff...grandpa's been gone since '05, and like I said, grandma willbe 99 in February and needs assisted living, so while the family was all here we got to get some keepsakes. Got my boy a matched set of cuff links and a tie bar with old cars on it. Grabbed an old mechanical pedometer for myself...interesting piece that looks like a watch, but you wear it on your ankle. Has 3 or 4 different scales depending on length of stride and 24 miles is a full revolution of the single hand going around. Can't post a pic, because I don't have enough space...but here's a link we found when trying to figure out exactly what it was: https://www.compasslibrary.com/products/vintage-west-german-pedometer-c-1960

Also in the boxes of stuff, I grabbed my grandpa's harmonica that nobody else wanted...until I showed them the box that had his military info (unit, etc) from the war...it was the one he carried overseas...too late, they had their chance to speak up. Also found some OPA ration tokens...just a variety of stuff. The old Christmas ornaments spoke of the times they were from...walnut nut shells carefully cracked to clean out for cookies, and then glued back together to decorate & hang on the tree...paper cups wrapped in tin foil to look like bells...turkey wishbones painted up all pretty...basically anything that nowadays would quickly be discarded without a second thought, they had saved, decorated, and hung on the tree. Grandparents grew up in the depression & didn't have much, and maintained that extremely frugal lifestyle while raising their 4 kids in the remodeled chicken-coup they called home sitting on an acre of land in suburban Chicago. House was actually moved to it's current location when Argonne Nat'l Lab was being built & they wanted the land my grandparents were on at the time. Don't know what happened to the pics of that move...but I remember grandma showing them to me ages ago.

Anyway, enough reminiscing. Hope everyone's Christmas was as enjoyable as mine!

I had a car pull out in front of me leaving town. I'm barely back up to speed (car pulling away) when we meet a statey going to other way. He flips around & lights me up. 2-lane road, no shoulder...but 1-1/2 miles up the road is a big gravel lot at an intersection...so I puton my 4-ways to indicate "I see you back there and will be stopping", reduce my speed (in case he wanted around me to get the car...I know...not likely), and proceeded up to the safe place to stop. He wrote me for 62 in a 55. I asked about the car speeding off & easily pulling away from me ahead of me. He said "I had him clocked at 57". On what planet does THAT make sense? He then proceeded to tell me they've had a lot of complaints about 'you coal haulers speeding in & out of the mine' just on the other side of the town I had just come through. Didn't matter to him that I hadn't hauled a load of coal in over a week, or that I had never in my life been to that particular mine. I was pulling a dump wagon, and it wouldn't look good FOR HIM if he let me off with a warning (for what...NOT speeding?)...so he wrote me a ticket

Yeah, F you too, buddy. Last time I try & do y'all any favors.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. I cross the Chester bridge loaded pretty heavy (but legal) and they're sitting right there at the IL welcome center. I had a line of cars behind me as I started up the hill into town, so when I saw the state cop hit his lights & start to pass, I slowed to make sure he could get around before oncoming traffic got too close. He pulled in behind me...so I stopped. Right there in the middle of the road (zero shoulder...rock wall to my right) on this little 2-lane hill with a long line of cars behind me & oncoming traffic now also having to stop coming down the hill because he's out of his car dealing with me.

Wanna F with me? I'll F with you right back. Have a nice day.😂

Over the years I've found going out of my way to make their job easier never buys me an ounce of good favor, so I quit trying. I'll be professional, but if they don't ask for something I don't offer it up, and even if they DO ask, if the regs say I'm not required to have something I'll say I don't have it. There's a big green book that gives us the rules we have to play by. Your job is to know the rules & how to bend them in your favor. Their job is to catch you breaking the rules. I've found a lot of the time they don't know the rules...they find something they THINK looks wrong, and they have to look it up to verify. They won't tell you about the exceptions and exemptions you may have available to you that say what you're doing is OK. In my experience, they don't know about them and will only look them up if YOU cite them as a reason for doing what they think you shouldn't be doing.

Back when my truck was still new-to-me, I was having issues with barrel nuts breaking and I hadn't figured out why. Before leaving the shipper, I did a quick walk-around and everything looked good. Tight on time (and close...but legal...on weight) I knew I had to run the big road & get past the scales before fueling. I pulled onto the scale and sat there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the green light. It came on, and I was gone...to jump off at the next exit & grab some fuel. While fueling, I did another walk-around...and found 8 broken barrel nuts on a drive wheel...FACING their window!😱

Dodged a bullet. BIG time.

Anyway, finished fueling & drove across the street to a TA (closest shop) to rectify the situation.

I later figured out my problem. The ad for my truck had said "aluminum wheels", but when I got there to buy it, it turned out to be "aluminum outside wheels". I didn't realize there were different barrel nuts, and I'm assuming they didn't either. I'm guessing my truck HAD 10 aluminum wheels when they got it in, and they had another truck with aluminum steers & steel drives...and they figured they'd make more by selling 2 trucks with aluminum outside wheels with steel inners. The barrel nuts were for aluminum inner & outers, and wouldn't properly secure the steel inners...leading to vibrations & broken barrel nuts. Once I replaced them with the proper barrel nuts, I never broke another barrel nut.

I don't even want to think about the treatment I would've received had they noticed that 8/10 barrel nuts on 1 wheel were broken.🤦‍♂️ Also extremely thankful I needed fuel & caught the problem beforeit became a catastrophe.

On 11/5/2020 at 3:01 PM, tjc transport said:

i had an operating engineers union rep try to close down a sand pit back in 88 because i refused to show him id, and he claimed i had non union drivers in the trucks.. i told him to go back to the bar. he refused and called the cops when i told him if he did not move his truck i would. 

i also called his company  president. 

he had union people follow my trucks knowing they were going to a union job on the nj turnpike. 

only issue was all the trucks were going into nu yawk. 😁

by the way, i had an "A" book with the operating engineers union, AND a teamsters book. 

and all my drivers were teamsters too. 

he got fired, (and arrested for drunk driving) and i got apologies from the union and a go ahead to load any trucks i wanted, going to any jobs i wanted to send them to. 

 

the main issue with this drunk was he wanted my pit, but refused to put up any money to get it operational. he waited until we put almost 1/2 million into two bridges and 1 1/2 miles of paved roads into the property before trying to take over. 

On 11/5/2020 at 2:35 PM, 41chevy said:

Late 1980's in L.I. and NYC the Carters union was burning garbage trucks and beating the owners and drivers who were non union. Even killed one owner in Northport L.I and burned down his shop.

I had it happen on my property in Virginia two years ago. Union "rep" confronted me, climbed on my tank and waved a knife at me and was met by me with Colt 1911. State Police arrested him, Union "rep" told the officer if he knows whats good for him, he'll let him go. didn't work out for the "rep"

Amazing the balls on some of those union thugs...especially when you've obviously got the means to make them & every trace of their visit disappear...permanently. Would've been easier back then, too...no cell phones/gps trackers to ping...no security cameras on every corner to trace their trip to your property...no evidence at all to say they successfully made it onto your property.

On 9/24/2020 at 7:14 AM, doubleclutchinweasel said:

I frequently eat lunch at a restaurant next-door to one of the local truck stops.  Watching the drivers come in and out of that place is scary.  There are a few who know their truck and are careful to square the corner off nicely.  Those guys are pros, and you can tell.  But, too many of the drivers just appear lazy or careless, cutting the corner off with no regard for vehicles sitting at the light.  Watch their eyes and you can see that they don't even glance in the mirror to see where their trailer is.  Lots of accidents there. 

The road leading to our plant is curvier than I would have made it for an industrial entrance.  Similar problems there.  Some of these guys just have no regard for anybody.  I have been run off in the grass several times.  Again, they don't even know where their trailer wheels are.  The guard rails along that road are all black-marked and flattened.  I followed one truck out of there once which dragged the trailer wheels along that guard rail for a good 100 yards.  Hard on the guard rail, and probably not too good on the tires, either.  Kinda sad, really.

So, when I see someone who really pays attention to what they are doing, and are careful about how they drive around other vehicles, I make it a point to acknowledge their efforts with a wave or a thumbs-up.  I actually waited on one driver to get out of the cab the other day, just to compliment him on how well he negotiated a tight parking lot.  Even he gave me a half-cocky response!  Oh well, at least he earned it!

When my dad was teaching me to drive (too many) years ago, he was very clear that the truck needed to do everything possible to avoid an accident, even if it was the car which was at fault.  His main concern was that nobody got killed, because in a car vs. truck confrontation, the car always loses.  That has stuck with me.

Of course, this is not limited to truck drivers.  Car and pickup drivers aren't really any different.  Or, for that matter, factory workers or construction workers or any other profession.  Seems like there are precious few people who take pride in doing their job well anymore.  So, to those of you drivers out there who still take pride in your job, and are courteous and careful on the highways, a great big THANK YOU and WELL DONE from da' Weasel!  I appreciate y'all!

Whenever I see someone standing around admiring my work, I like to climb down out of the truck, look at them & shrug as I try to sound surprised when I say "That almost looked like I knew what I was doing!" 😁

This is an old video, but still one of my favorites of me showing off my mad skillz. Definitely NOT a fail, so if that's what you're looking for you'll be disappointed.

So the boy was trying to pull my wife into the kitchen, and she asked: "Why do you want me in the kitchen?"

I couldn't help myself.

"'Cuz that's where wimins is s'posed ta be!"

😁

*duck*